The Same Woman

By Rose-Arwen-Padmé

Glir's Wedding Present

It wasn't a trick of the sunlight. Arwen knew she had seen a dangerous flick in the depths of Glir's eyes.

His voice was low and hesitant. "You would be… grateful, my Arwen?"

She nodded, silently praying that her eyes wouldn't give any secrets away. "Until the day I die. For eternity."

His cheeks pulled on his lips, tugging on a smile. "Arwen… would you mind if I gave you your wedding present… a tad bit early?"

Innocently, she replied, "No, Glir, not at all." Arwen hoped she appeared excited. She held her breath, eagerly anticipating what was to come.

Slowly, he reached out, and his hands shaped her shoulders. Attentively, he pulled her nearer to him. Unfortunately, she watched as he started to say something, and then suddenly stopped himself. This wasn't the same show as earlier. He was truly hesitating about telling her something. The same thing happened twice more.

Intent on getting the desperately needing information out of him, Arwen leaned forward with heavy eyes and whispered, "Just remember my wedding gift to you… my gift that I shall give this night… this wedding night…"

She'd done it. His reaction was immediate, and just want she had wanted. "Arwen," he started.

"Yes?"

"I-I know the identity of the one who caused Aragorn's death. I know…"

"Yes?"

"Arwen,"

"Yes?"

"Come closer. Let me whisper it into your ear."

Immediately she obliged. "Tell me who brought us our present happiness, Glir!"

A pause. A heartbeat. "It was me."

As her smile spread, her eyes closed. A wave of much anticipated relief washed over her.

"I hired a solicited group of Elves to ambush him. They attacked and killed him, here in Rivendell. Don't worry; I paid them well for it." He leaned in closer to her pointed ear. "Do you like your wedding present, My Lady?" He saw and felt her nod slowly.

Suddenly, without a word, Arwen turned briskly in the opposite direction, and walked several feet away from him. Glir watched her with building concern. As she turned, the look on her face was more than enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "Arwen?"

Her voice was obviously different—besides being loud, it was now deeper, much darker, and sounded incredibly satisfied. "Elladan, you can bring Father out now."

Arwen watched Glir as the hedge on his left side started to move. She had never seen someone's face pale so quickly. With each sound of approaching footsteps, his face seemed to get whiter and whiter. A moment later, Elladan, followed by a stone-faced Lord Elrond, rounded the hedge-bend, coming into sight. She watched her father's reaction with pride as Elledan came to stand next to her.

Elrond slowly, but still menacingly, stalked towards Glir. Glir, in the state of shock that he was in, could only open and close his mouth without successfully producing any sound at all. "You…" Elrond's low voice boomed. If they had been in the library, his voice would have echoed all over the room. "You… I bring you into my home. I offer you support. I offer you shelter and food. I offer you a place in my heart." His brow furred together as his anger grew. "I offered you my daughter! My only daughter!" Glir almost stumbled to the ground as he backed away in fright, but managed to catch himself at the last moment. "You conspired to kill my 'third'," he shot an approving look at Arwen, "son! You try to tear our household apart!" His voice shook with rage as he bellowed, "You made my daughter weep for months without end! You stole her light from us for months! You made her grieve needlessly! AND THE WHOLE TIME I SUPPORTED YOU! I TOLD HER TO MARRY YOU!!"

Glir eyed Elrond's clenched fists wearily. However, he wasn't worried that Elrond would punch him—he feared what Elven magic the Elf Lord could call upon from the Valar to punish him. It was known, however solemn he usually was, that Lord Elrond's power of wrath equaled his power of healing.

"W-w-w," Glir stuttered uncontrollably. Arwen took this opportunity to step forward.

"Elledan knew, as I did, of your treachery. We both learned of it just within an hour of the wedding's beginning. We knew I had to get you somewhere private, make you think that we were alone, while in fact, my brother brought my father, hidden out of sight, to listen to our conversation—AND YOUR CONFESSION!!" She crossed her arms, smiling with all the hate she could muster at him. "And you fell into the hole just as easily as I knew you would." She looked on the verge of laughing of hysteria. "You are so predictable, Glir. Your ego, matched with your gullibility, has brought you to this moment."

"H-how?! H-how could you p-possibly?!"

Arwen's eyes narrowed. "How could we possibly know?" Glir watched as her eyesight moved to something behind him. "Perhaps he can tell you."

Glir froze. There was only one person in the world who could really know what happened… but it couldn't be true. He'd specifically ordered the assassins to make sure he was dead!

Each second seemed to last an hour, as Glir turned to face the direction Arwen was looking.

The husky voice rumbled in a low tone, and brought a small smile to Arwen's lips.

"I told them."

Glir watched as the tall, roughish Aragorn Elessar gripped his sword's handle and slowly unsheathed it. It glimmered in the sun's rays, momentarily catching the strong sunlight and blinding the Elf.

"If you're going to kill a man, make sure he is dead." His eyes were daggers, his stare as sharp as the tip of his blade. "I will not make the same mistake."